Health IT’s Impact: Are Patients Becoming Consumers?

Digital Health A handful of leading minds come together for a discussion of the drastic shifts technology has already brought, and will continue to bring, to the traditional doctor-patient experience.

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Joel Diamond, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer, Precision Medicine, Allscripts

“Telemedicine enables remote diagnoses … and it provides clinicians with opportunities for collaboration and efficiency.”

Mediaplanet: Can you explain how one recent innovation in health care IT is improving patient care?

Joel Diamond: Precision medicine is a game-changer for patient care. The ability to match the best treatment plan for a patient based on genomic, environmental and personal health information is far better than the trial-and-error approach clinicians take today.

I’m not the only physician who feels this way. Studies show a majority of us agrees that, in the near future, precision medicine will influence the everyday treatment of patients. There is an explosion of genomic data out there right now, and making that useful at the point of care is a huge task for health care IT.

MP: In your opinion, what is the most significant way mobile health is transforming the health care industry?

JD: Some studies estimate that more than half of today’s outpatient visits are for issues that could be resolved using telemedicine. Demand for these options continues to grow as patients seek more convenient and accessible care.

Patients should be able to schedule virtual appointments and communicate with caregivers via real-time videoconferencing, chat and screen sharing functionality. Telemedicine enables remote diagnoses and treatment for patients, and it provides clinicians with opportunities for collaboration and efficiency.

MP: What do you believe is the most significant factor in the mission to reduce health care costs?

JD: We’re spending a lot of money on health care because we so often take a one-size-fits-all approach to treating patients. The reality is that we can be more precise today with the knowledge we have, we’re just not getting that information in hands of doctors fast enough.

We’re learning that there are variances in multiple chronic diseases, like diabetes. Some diabetics don’t respond the same way to treatment as others. Having genomic information at the point of care will boost that precision. With the right treatment, patients will get better faster, and doctors won’t waste money on unnecessary tests.

Carla Smith, MA, FHIMSS, CNM

Executive Vice President, HIMSS

“The ability to connect with providers outside of the four walls of the exam room is just another innovation that is further empowering the patient.”

MP: Can you explain how one recent innovation in health care IT is improving patient care?

Carla Smith: Through telemedicine, patients can now have virtual visits with a care provider that was previously inaccessible due to distance or mobility issues. This is convenient, safe and lowers costs. The ability to connect with providers outside of the four walls of the exam room is just another innovation that is further empowering the patient.

MP: In your opinion, what is the most significant way mobile health is transforming health care?

CS: Mobile health allows patients and caregivers to monitor chronic conditions and coordinate care between a patient’s caregivers. Smart scales, smart phones, teleradiology services and remote patient monitoring tools are all examples of technology available today that clinicians are using to administer and coordinate patient care.

MP: What do you believe is the most significant factor in the effort to reduce health care costs?

CS: Helping people stay healthy in the first place and, for those who require care, ensuring the right information is available at the right time. Health IT is a powerful tool that supports both of these factors.

Art Papier, M.D.

Associate Professor, Dermatology and Medical Informatics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; CEO, VisualDx

“We need to do a better job of empowering our doctors and nurses with tools to make the accurate diagnosis.”

Mediaplanet: Can you explain how one recent innovation in health care IT is improving patient care?

Art Papier: Many will say big data, analytics or precision medicine. But a real innovation that truly improves patient care is the idea of bringing intelligence into the electronic health record. The EHR should not just be a record-keeping instrument. It should be an intelligent support system for the clinician to make better decisions about the patient and improve care.

Thanks to FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and the team behind it, like Josh Mandel at Boston Children’s Hospital, the e-record is now being integrated into the workflow, pulling information from the patient to produce better outcomes for the patient.

MP: In your opinion, what is the most significant way mobile health is transforming the health care industry?

AP: Mobile health is about connections. Connecting caregivers to caregivers. Connecting practitioners to patients. Those who face barriers to health care, whether it’s due to income or location, are now better able to access quality care. Mobile Health will transform health care over the next few years by providing immediate global access to specialists and specialist level information. This greatly improves point of care decision-making anytime, anywhere, resulting in better care. With so many resources now available on-the-go, providers can be more efficient. But while speed is a necessity, accuracy is still essential.

MP: What do you believe is the most significant factor in the mission to reduce health care costs?

AP: Accurate diagnoses. Diagnostic errors cost everyone, doctors, hospitals and patients. In September, the Institute of Medicine highlighted the issue, reporting nearly everyone will experience an error in their lifetime. The practice of medicine is based on the notion doctors should know the diagnoses based on education and training.

Think of it in terms of a pilot. We wouldn’t expect a pilot to fly a plane without a cockpit filled with intelligent instruments. Why do we expect doctors to practice medicine from memory without a similarly designed system? We need to do a better job of empowering our doctors and nurses with tools to make the accurate diagnosis.

Kevin Kern

Konica Minolta Business Solutions

“The development of apps to track everything … is driving a transformation from the traditional medical business to consumerism.”

Mediaplanet: Can you explain how one recent innovation in health care IT is improving patient care?

Kevin Kern: I believe the prevalence of mobile technology and smart devices is driving significant innovations around patient care. Chronic illness has become one of the leading causes of death in the United States. And with the availability, simplicity and accuracy of personal medical devices and big data analytics, which allow a more individualized approach to treatment, patients can make a greater impact on their own health.

This is typically referred to as patient engagement, and is rapidly becoming a best practice in the self-management of many illnesses, as well as a way to maintain wellness for generally healthy people.

MP: In your opinion, what is the most significant way mobile health is transforming the health care industry?

KK: Virtually everyone today uses smart phones or tablets, which has leveled the playing field for technology adoption. The development of apps to track everything—from vitals and key health status indicators integrated with EHRs through common interfaces, to automating patient registration processes and patients payments—is driving a transformation from the traditional medical business to consumerism.

MP: What do you believe is the most significant factor in the mission to reduce health care costs?

KK: Ultimately, the goal in health care should be to improve overall outcomes. In my view, outcomes are both clinical and economic. The drive towards values-based reimbursement model of payment holds promise to improve the quality of care, and with it a more efficient delivery system. The greater the efficiency, the lower the costs. Technology will be a key driver in this objective with mobile, cloud, predictive analytics, telemedicine and interoperable and secure patient data all playing key roles.

Jeff Kaplan

Chief Strategy Officer, ZirMed

“Patients have responded by seeking more cost-effective treatments and reducing trips to their local hospital.”

Mediaplanet: Can you explain how one recent innovation in health care IT is improving patient care?

Jeff Kaplan: The focus and investment on data analytics and data warehousing is key to improving patient care. By leveraging technologies such as predictive analytics, health care providers can extract actionable intelligence from the large volumes of disparate patient financial and clinical data.

The value of predictive analytics is granularity and personalization—it provides the basis for modeling and understanding an individual’s unique care needs versus protocols for populations of patients. Applications include increasing the accuracy of diagnoses, identifying the need for early interventions, improving outcomes and lowering unnecessary treatment costs, reducing readmissions and the holy grail of personalized medicine treatments based on an individual patient’s genetic makeup.

MP: In your opinion, what is the most significant way mobile health is transforming the health care industry?

JK: Smart wearables are truly transforming the rate and flow of health care data, and creating a wholly new, wearable hardware market that analysts believe could reach $50 billion by 2020. The potential applications of these wearables far exceeds the average person monitoring their workout using their watch. From skin patches to digestible sensors, data can be recorded in real time and sent to physicians who can use it to monitor a patient’s sleep patterns, temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, glucose levels, medication usage and more—so they can intervene if the patient becomes at-risk.

We’re in the very early stages of wearables. Widespread adoption will depend on the ability to seamlessly integrate these sensors into our daily lives, through clothing, contact lenses and really any other form of wearable that can be conceived and effectively marketed to consumers.

MP: What do you believe is the most significant factor in the mission to reduce health care costs?

JK: Patient engagement and education are the most effective strategies to reduce health care costs. Over the last decade the average per-person deductible increased by 146 percent, shifting a larger portion of the cost burden to the patient. Patients have responded by seeking more cost-effective treatments and reducing trips to their local hospital in favor of visiting their primary care physician, which indeed is one of the goals of value-based care.

Additionally, patients are becoming more savvy and leveraging price-comparison data that provides greater transparency into care-costs across multiple providers. Given that all of this is broadly termed the consumerization of health care, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the principle underlying its success is educating consumers (in this case: patients) and arming them with the ability to further educate themselves.